Inside Higher Ed: Student and Faculty Perspectives on Digital Learning Differ

More than half of faculty members say they prefer face-to-face classes over hybrid or online delivery, but nearly seven in 10 students say they prefer an instructional model with at least some virtual component. Three-quarters of students favor digital course materials over print, while professors are split 50-50. And 60 percent of faculty instructors opt to send students to the traditional bookstore as their primary method of course material access, though barely 15 percent of students say they prefer to purchase new print materials.

Those findings, drawn from a report released Tuesday by Tyton Partners, show that even as digital learning becomes a fundamental feature of today’s higher education landscape, student, faculty and administrative perspectives about it don’t always align.

The survey, part of a series the research and consulting firm has produced since the pandemic, combines the results of three spring surveys to document the challenges, experiences and preferences of more than 2,000 students, 1,700 instructors and 300 administrators. Past surveys in the series analyzed faculty members’ thoughts on emergency remote learning in the spring of 2020, as well as their growth in confidence and accrued exhaustion the following year. The latest report is the first to factor students’ perspectives into the mix.

Article originally published by Jessica Blake from Inside Higher Ed. Read the full article here.